The immunological studies on the splenectomy and the splenic autotransplantation in BALB/C mice

Recently, it has been demonstrated that the severe infectious diseases are often caused after splenectomy. The significance of spleen on humoral immunity has been pointed out, however the alterations of cellular immunity by splenectomy has not yet been investigated sufficiently. In this study, the effects of splenectomy on the immunological aspects were examined. And the reconstruction of immunological responses by the splenic autotransplantation was also examined. The results obtained were as follows. The antibody titers against SRBC of the splenectomized groups continued to be apparently lower than those of sham-operated groups. The IgM of the splenectomized groups showed lower values than that of the sham-operated groups, but concerning IgG, no distinct differences were noticed among these two groups. On the proliferation of peripheral lymphoid cells, the splenectomized groups from 4th week later showed a higher response than the sham operated groups. The splenic autotransplanted groups showed a similar response to the sham operated ones in the antibody production against SRBC, and the proliferations of lymphocytes. The splenic autotransplantation might be suggested to be a worthy application.